ST. PAULS — After losing the third set to fall behind in the match, Lumberton volleyball coach called her team off the floor and into a hallway in between sets.

“Do any of y’all want to really be here?” Carter said she asked her team. “Who’s fighting to be on this court? Who has been putting in the work? It’s not an individual ‘well I was talking’ or ‘I was saying this and that’; it’s a team effort. I can’t recognize individuals unless I can recognize all of them as a team.”

The Pirates responded in the final two sets, earning close wins in both to win the nonconference match 3-2.

Lumberton (5-5) won the fourth set 25-23; the Pirates led the set from start to finish, but after St. Pauls (2-8) trailed 22-17 the Bulldogs closed to 24-23 before Lumberton got the one more point needed to finish off the set.

Leading the fifth set 6-5, Lumberton scored the next five points during Kaylee Lancaster’s turn serving, taking an 11-5 lead. St. Pauls again rallied, tying the set at 14-14, but Lumberton scored the next two points, with a kill and a Bulldogs net violation, to win the set 16-14 and clinch the match.

“The energy in the last set (made a difference), for sure,” Carter said. “It came from out of nowhere. They fought for every single ball; it didn’t matter if they were expecting to get a call on it, a double, a lift, anything, they fought for every single ball. The little things like that, and communicating definitely helped.”

St. Pauls was without two key players, Katherin Lowery and Tyasia Baldwin, but overcame those absences to play a competitive game and nearly knock off the 4A Pirates.

“I had some players that were doing some things they’ve never had to do,” St. Pauls coach Glenda Lowery said. “My setter has never had to play a 5-1 (rotation). That was one thing. We got tired, we started losing our energy and making simple mistakes, and we weren’t being as quick; we were reacting instead of moving, and we didn’t read the hitters on the other side as much.”

St. Pauls won the first set 26-24; the Bulldogs led the majority of the set after taking an early 7-2 lead, but Lumberton used a 5-1 run to take a 24-22 lead. The Bulldogs, though, scored the next four points to win the set.

Lumberton dominated the second set, using an 11-2 run midway through the set to pull away en route to a 25-14 win. St. Pauls answered in the third set, winning 25-19 after leading nearly the whole set.

“I think that third set showed exactly who we are as a team,” Lowery said. “A lot of people underestimate us, but that is our team; we are a team that can come in and when we’re doing everything like they’ve practiced, they’ve got it and they surprise people. They came out after that second set and they played their game in that third set.”

It was after that comfortable St. Pauls set win that Carter gave her hallway pep talk to the Pirates.

“She told us that we needed talk, because we weren’t communicating on the court, we were letting balls drop, it’s not like us,” said Pirates middle hitter La’Kayia Hunt, who had four aces, eight kills and two blocks. “We have a young team, so we’re still adjusting, but we came together.”

Aydan Bullard had over 70 assists in the lengthy, five-set match, and two aces. Lancaster had 17 kills, Charley Whitley had 13, Alona Hanna had 11 and Liera Smith had seven.

Cierra Jones had four aces, 22 assists and 21 digs for St. Pauls; Brazlyn Kinlaw had two aces, 28 digs and five kills; Julianna Bell had five aces, six kills and four blocks; KeMyah Baldwin had three aces and 13 digs; Jaiden Morrisey had six kills and six digs; and Jada McKinnon had 12 kills and one block.

St. Pauls resumes conference play Tuesday at Midway; the Bulldogs are 2-0 in the Southeastern Athletic Conference.

“We had a very tough (nonconference), and we didn’t get wins in nonconference, but we played hard and teams didn’t just walk away; they had to earn things against us,” Lowery said. “That’s going to set us up even better coming into conference play.”

Lumberton plays Tuesday at Douglas Byrd, looking for its first United-8 Conference win after an 0-4 start.

“I really hope it’s not the peak for us. We’ve gotten to the point that we’re a very back-and-forth team. I expect a lot more of them … I’m hoping we’ll be more developmental the next couple games and we learn a lot more.”